Strata Conference New York 2011 Call For Proposals

Call
closed
11:59pm 07/15/2011 EDT.

Making Data Work

We believe that humanity is on the verge of a revolution. We’ve moved beyond the web of pages and the Internet of people. Soon, we’ll take ubiquitous data for granted. Our every glance will be augmented; our every purchase shared and analyzed. Big data, available to everyone, in compelling, convincing interfaces will change the very nature of how we think. It will unseat and launch entire industries, hold governments accountable, and empower society.

There’s an industrial revolution of data coming. The power of data will change us as surely as the power of steam did a century ago.

Today, much of the innovation happens in labs and research organizations. But that’s changing: interactive interfaces, augmented reality, and computing from anywhere are now commonplace. We mine petabytes of data every time we search; filter millions of messages whenever we look at Twitter. As these technologies are applied to business and government, they’ll redefine what’s possible. Organizations that embrace this stratified, augmented world will thrive; those that ignore it do so at their peril.

This is what the O’Reilly Strata Conference explores: the change brought to technology and business by data science, pervasive computing, and new interfaces.

We are inviting proposals for presentations from practitioners, business leaders, analysts, designers, ethicists, and developers. We’re interested in success stories, best practices, failures, cautionary tales, and future developments. We want to hear stories and innovation from the worlds of the web, media, retail, telecoms, government, finance, and more.

If you have a compelling story to tell, you are invited to submit a proposal now to speak at Strata. Read tips for submitting a proposal.

Give your proposal a simple and straightforward title. Clever or inappropriate titles make it harder for people to figure out what you’re really talking about

Include as much detail about the planned presentation as possible. The longer the talk you’re proposing, the more detail you should provide

If you are proposing a panel, tell us who else would be on it

Keep proposals free of marketing and sales

If you are not the speaker, provide the contact information of the person you’re suggesting. We tend to ignore proposals submitted by agencies unless we can reach the suggested participant directly. Improve the proposal’s chances of being accepted by working closely with the presenter(s) to write a jargon-free proposal that contains clear value for attendees

Context is important. If your presentation is about something truly ground-breaking, it will be helpful to the reviewers if you describe it in terms of things that attendees might already know of

Limit the scope of the talk: in 40 minutes, you won’t be able to cover Everything about Widget Framework X. Instead, pick a useful aspect, or a particular technique, or walk through a simple program

Explain why people will want to attend: is your topic gaining traction? Is it critical to modern business? Will attendees learn how to use it, program it, or just what it is?

Repeated talks from the conference circuit are less likely to be appealing. The conference has a limited number of slots, and if attendees can see the same talk somewhere else, why should they come see you at this one? If you speak at a lot of events, be sure to note why this presentation is different

Don’t assume that your company’s name buys you credibility. If you’re talking about something important that you have specific knowledge of because of what your company does, spell that out in the description

Let us know in your proposal notes whether you can give all the talks you submitted proposals for

Does your presentation have the participation of a woman, person of color, or member of another group often underrepresented at tech conferences? Diversity is one of the factors we seriously consider when reviewing proposals as we seek to broaden our speaker roster

We welcome sessions for attendees with a variety of skill levels. Consider proposing a number of different skill-level sessions, and please indicate the experience and knowledge level of the audience that you are targeting: novice, intermediate, or expert.